How to Play

GETTING STARTED

When you first hit Play you will be taken to the Blademaster campaign/tutorial. Throughout the Hero tutorials, all of your decks are built for you.

After you complete the Hero tutorials, try a few raids in Northgate before building your own decks.

Choose Northgate from the Starfall map

Choose which Heroes you want to use in your adventure through Northgate

Choose a Boss to defend your Lair while your Heroes are away

Hit Explore!

Select the figurines on the map of Northgate to move to them and start an encounter

Winning

Defeat the Boss to win or, if there is no Boss, defeat all enemies. You lose if all your Heroes die.

Each Zone map is filled with both fights against Bosses and fights against a group of Minions and Structures as well as some encounters that don’t involve fighting at all.

PLAY

Ticks

Labyrinth uses a “Tick” system that makes time into the primary resource.

On a Hero’s turn, they may move up to 3 spaces and choose an action from among cards in their hand or their equipped Weapon and Offhand (each Hero has a default Weapon equipped and Guard as the default Offhand)

Tick cost is displayed on the upper left of each card, and 0 means it’s Instant

If the Hero plays an Instant card (i.e. one with 0 Tick cost), it remains their turn

Otherwise, the Hero’s turn ends and their next turn is pushed forward by as many Ticks as the cost of the card, Weapon, or Offhand played

The Timeline on the top of the battle display shows when each unit on the map will take their next turn

Minions don’t play cards but have a Speed which is their Tick cost for acting that is displayed on the left side of their card.

Windup Cards

Cards labeled Windup have actions whose completion is delayed by their Tick cost. When the card is played, the Hero begins to prepare their action, but the action does not occur until Ticks have passed equal to the cost. Note that the Hero’s turn doesn’t end until the Windup ends.

Channel Cards

Cards labeled Channel play their effect each Tick for a number of Ticks equal to the Channel cost. Channel card costs cannot be discounted by other cards. Like Windups, the Hero’s turn doesn’t end until the Windup ends.

Hands and Draws

Heroes and Bosses start with three cards in their hand and draw one on every third Tick or as described by other cards. Hero decks do not reshuffle. Both a Boss’ hand and cards already played are reshuffled into their deck when it is empty and three new cards are drawn.

Disciplines

Every Hero belongs to one of four Disciplines: Warfare, Skulduggery, Faith, and Wizardry.

Each discipline has cards that play a little bit differently.

Warfare Heroes gain Fury when they are attacked equal to the damage they take, including damage they block. The maximum Fury is 10, and it is spent automatically when playing certain Warfare cards to augment them.

Faith Heroes start each battle with a pool of Devotion, then spend it as an option to improve many of their cards. The only way to gain Devotion is through other Faith cards.

Skulduggery Heroes gain Amps from certain cards that discount the Tick cost of the next non-Instant card or Weapon they play. They also improve many Skulduggery cards.

Playing Cards

Drag cards up into the play space from the Hero’s hand to play them. Many cards require you to target an enemy, friend, or space on the board. Some cards require multiple chosen targets, sometimes for different effects and will prompt you for each choice.

The Hero’s Offhand and Weapon slots are to the right of their hand and can be dragged into the play space like a card or, if there are no targets, can simply be clicked.

Bosses

Each boss has a special power that helps define them. Roggix, Heart of Fire, sprays Lava when damaged which burns Heroes when they stand on it. Radaghar the Hordecaller increases his Armor by the number of Minions he controls.

Bosses move and attack like other characters, but they also play a card every turn. Many Defense cards summon Minions. Some cause the Boss to make special attacks and some buff the Boss or his Minions.

Controls

Other than moving your heroes and playing cards, there are a few more useful controls.

Inspect a Boss or Minion’s card to find out what they do by double clicking their model on the map or their portrait in the Timeline during a battle.

Hold both mouse buttons down to pan the camera, and use the right mouse button alone to rotate it left or right, or up or down. The mouse wheel zooms.

Use the Tab key to toggle between showing numerical info on all units, or just the one your mouse is over.

DECKS

After playing a Labyrinth or two, click the deck symbol in your Lair beneath your Hero or Boss to try creating your own decks tailored to your play style.

Heroes have 20 Action cards (Attacks, Spells, Enhancements, Afflictions, or Equipment) and as many stars worth of Perk cards as the Zone star limit allows. Bosses have 10 Action cards (Attacks, Spells, Enhancements, or Afflictions) and as many stars worth of Perk and Lair cards as the Zone star limit allows.

Perks and Lair are played and take effect automatically without being drawn or played from the hand.